


Trick up Your Sleeves

by omnomeevee



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 01:46:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19415947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omnomeevee/pseuds/omnomeevee
Summary: Taeyong didn't know why it felt like it was right for him to be going and helping someone he didn't know until she opened the door.





	Trick up Your Sleeves

The apartment is filled with packed boxes as they write down the words “Mark’s room” on the boxes they had just taped up. Seren sits down on the bed as Mark grabs the marker from Cordelia. “Really, thank you guys for coming and helping pack up. It was getting tiring doing it with just Taeyong and I.”

“It’s no big deal.” Cord says, now sitting next to Seren. The two of them look at each other as they hear a phone ringing. “It’s not mine,” Cordelia said.

“Not mine!” Mark exhales it out like a sigh, showing his phone as he falls back on the ground, tired.

Seren then got up, nearly stumbling over Mark, who messes with her feet as she walks by, in the process and answers her phone. “What’s up, Na?”

“My kitchen is flooded.”

“What? How?” Cordelia and Mark looked at her, growing in concern. She shook her head letting them know nothing was seriously wrong.

“I don’t want to talk about it, do you know if one of the guys can help me?”

“Um.. Yeah. I’ll call Mark-” Seren started, putting her finger up to her lips to hush a confused Mark and Cor.

“Oh god he can’t fix it, I know he can’t.”

“I.. wasn’t calling him to come and fix it.. I’m sure he’ll know who to ask.”

“Oh, well, thank you.” Athena clicks the phone and Seren laughs a bit. “So, Athena’s kitchen is flooded… I think the sink finally gave out on her.”

“Oh no, poor lovebug..” Cordelia says.

“Why did you say you’d call me?” Mark looked at Seren, motioning his hands along his body to say he’s standing there, confused.

“Because I have an idea..”

Both Cordelia and Mark looked at her, not catching on. She waited a minute as the other two exchanged looks, seeing if they could figure it out. “Ren, I don’t get it.” Mark shook his head.

“Yeah, no. What do you mean?” Cordelia scratched her head, Seren wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or as a joke.

“Taeyong.”

“What?” The two of them look even more confused until Mark gets it. “OH! Oh you’re evil but like, he hasn’t shut up about her since he saw her.”

“You’re one to talk Mark.” Cordelia pesters, as she looks back and forth, trying to catch on still. “Wait, you mean Taeyong likes Na?” She finally spits out.

“Yes.” Mark and Seren say at the same time.

“Oh that’s evil. I love it.” Cordelia says. “Also, you guys are cute.” She winks at a now flustered Seren. “So, plan?”

“Simple, we tell him to go fix it for her.” Seren says, squinting her eyes and shrugging her shoulders.

“He’s been pretty tired though, moving stuff back and forth.” Mark sort of half pouts. “I’m not sure how up for it he’d be.”

“Tell him it’s Athena.” Cordelia says.

“He hasn’t like, _met_ met her though.” Seren looks at Cordelia and Cord shakes her head.

“Then why does he keep talking about her? If he hasn’t met her?”

“He say her at the restaurant, the day Seren whacked me in the face with her phone.” Mark chimes in.

“Stop, don’t bring it up.” Seren’s face lifts and Mark sticks his tongue out at her teasingly.

“Okay, you two can continue flirting later, back to the point. Do we get him to do it?” Cordelia laughs as the two of them blush.

“Yes, of course we do!” They set out a plan, waiting for Taeyong to get home to ask. In the meantime they scramble around trying to make sure there isn’t anything for Taeyong to do when he gets home. Cordelia does the vacuuming, Mark and Ren tackle the dishes together, Seren washing and Mark drying and putting away. Mark cleans up the left over laundry and separates it, putting a load in the wash. Cordelia cooks food for them all and they sit down, waiting for him to come home.

All of them turn to Taeyong when he walks in and he scans the room. “You guys cleaned?”

“Yes, yes we did.” Mark says, stifling a laugh.

“Yongie~” Seren’s voice pitched up a bit when she said his name and he knew she wanted something. She smiled as he dropped his belongs down on the small entrance able.

Taeyong looks at Mark. “What does she want and why is she asking me and not you?” Mark laughs as he looks down.

“Her friend Athena’s got a busted pipe, it sounds like. You think you can help her?” Mark goes on to ignore Taeyong’s other question.

“Yeah. Just let me change?” He starts to walk off before Cordelia calls him.

“Wear a cutoff shirt or something! It gets hot at Na’s house!”

Seren calls Athena to let him know that Taeyong is on his way and soon enough, without much questioning, Taeyong leaves.

“How do you think it’ll go?” Cordelia asks.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” Seren says back.

When Taeyong gets there, he knocks lightly and waits for a bit. Normally, he wouldn't go and help someone he’s never met, but he felt like there was a reason why he was supposed to come here. When the door opened he understood. “Athena?” He questioned. He could see the hitch in her breathing when she looks at him. He can’t help but raise his eyebrows at her as he studied her face. She looked prettier up close. She nodded in response to him. Taeyong smiled to himself, tipping his head. “Can you… Show me where the problem is?” He laughed, as she nodded and moved aside to let him in the house. He took a second to look around as she closed the door. It was a small house, so he figured she lived by herself. He smiled to himself as she walked past him, motioning him with her hand to follow her.

Seeing the mess the kitchen was, puddles of water still there, Taeyong let out a chuckle. “So, what happened?” When she showed him the broken nozzle, he nodded. Quickly, he got to work. He could feel how nervous Athena was. Or was it him? Either way, he started to hum to ease his mind a bit. He’s only drawn out of his thoughts by a long sigh she lets out. he popped his head out and looked at her. He held a flash light between his lips and grabbed it with two fingers so he could say something.

“You don’t mind if I talk, do you?” he spoke low, and he can see Athena’s face turn a dark red as she nods. He nodded, laughing before he went back to work. He realizes he didn’t know what to talk about before he said it so he just rambled on about whatever came to his head. His favorite foods, movies, his favorite color and how many times he had dyed his hair, his love for animals. He was hopeful that she didn’t find it strange for him to be telling her so much. He talked about his friends, Mark and Seren meeting. Then he mentioned he remembered seeing Athena at the restaurant that day, not knowing that she was Seren’s friend until she sat down with her. “You guys seemed awful quiet, not how I know Seren is now. She’s always laughing.” He remembered how pretty Athena had looked when she would laugh. He hoped that he would be able to hear her laugh one day. “I had planned to introduce myself, actually. But didn’t want to interrupt your lunch.” He sits up and looks at her, and he sees she’s already looking at him. He cracked a smile before he stood up. “I’ve gotta grab something else really fast, I’ll be back in a second.” He slips out of the door and to his car. But, in reality, he just needed to take a second to clear his head. He didn’t know if it was going to be awkward, but he wanted to ask her out. As he pretended to rummage for something he needed.

As he walks back up to the house and he can hear talking. He stood outside for a second and tried to make out her voice, before slowly opening the door and walking in. He smiles, realizing she’s sitting and rambling about him on the phone.

“From the moment he looked at me I just shut up. He’s got these soft puppy eyes and this contrasting voice. He smiled at me several times, his laugh is cute. He’s cute. He said he remembers seeing me at the restaurant and that was before you sat with me so it wasn’t even like he was watching you and Mark walk in. He said that he was going to introduce himself but didn’t want to interrupt. He’s sweet. He showed up at my house in a freaking cut off shirt. Seren, his arms- Oh shit.” His smile is wide, he can feel how big the smile is and laughed. “I gotta go, Ren.” She clicked the phone off and awkwardly smiled. He thought she looked cute when she was a bit embarrassed.

Taeyong just went back to working and when he finished he went a talked to Athena. He was a bit nervous, but figured nothing would have been as bad as Athena’s embarrassment. Her dog jumped up and sat at his feet, as he bent down to pet him. It was a good distraction from his heart beat picking up. “You know.. Maybe you and I can go out sometime.” Taeyong starts, now looking at Dubu and not Athena. He was unsure how she was going to react so he couldn’t look at her.

She shook her head, “I’m sorry. That sounds great. Maybe I.. Maybe I’ll actually talk then…” She mumbled.

“Perfect.” He got up, making his way towards the door. Athena followed to let him out. When he walked out, he turned around to look at her. “Maybe I’ll pretend I can’t talk that time around.” He said, as he walked off, smiling to himself.

He wouldn’t dare let anyone know how much his heart soared when she agreed.


End file.
